Who was Phebe, wife of Ephraim Pratt of Reading, Mass.?
I’m writing to you in hopes that someone else has previously inquired into the maiden name of Phebe, who was the wife of Lt. Ephraim Pratt of Reading, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
Ephraim Pratt, the son of Samuel and Joanna Waters Pratt, was born 18 Jan. 1728/9 in North Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts. He was a veteran of the Reading Middlesex County militia response to the alarm of April 1775, and later, a Lt. and Quartermaster with the Continentals at Ft. Ticonderoga, where he died from smallpox on 30 AUG 1776.
Phebe _____ Pratt, the subject of this inquiry, spent her married life and widowhood in North Reading and most of her children were born there:
1. Phebe PRATT b: 27 DEC 1752 , m., 8 Dec 1777,as his first wife, Col. Nathan Parker of Reading, d. 1785
2. Anna PRATT b: 1 APR 1754, m., 23 Jan 1783 (North Reading), Benjamin Damon
3. Ephraim PRATT b: 4 JUL 1755, m. 24 FEB 1785, Rebecca Upton, d. Bef 17 NOV 1815
4. Samuel PRATT b: 13 JUN 1757 ; m. Mary Smith of Rowley, Essex, Massachusetts, d. 17 Jun 1842 Reading
5. Deacon Benjamin PRATT b: 5 NOV 1758; m. (1) Abigail Hartshorn, who d. 27 December 1793; and then (2) 18 FEB 1779, Mary “Polly” Smith, d. 4 Dec 1853 in Middlesex County
6. Sarah PRATT b: 31 AUG 1760, d. 30 DEC 1787,
7. Rhoda PRATT b: 6 NOV 1762, m. 9 DEC 1779, Jedidiah Russell of Andover, Essex Mass. d. BEF 4 JUL 1820 Hillsborough County, NH
8. Chloe PRATT b: 15 DEC 1764
9. Mary PRATT b: 14 DEC 1766; m., 29 September 1791, Caleb Bouttell
10. Elizabeth (Betty) PRATT b: 28 JAN 1769
11. Lydia PRATT b: 7 NOV 1771 , m. 1 NOV 1792 Jonathan Temple, d. 30 MAR 1800 in Reading
12. Tamar PRATT b: 21 FEB 1774
Her husband’s estate was proved in Middlesex County, and settled on their eldest son, Ephraim; and when Phebe _____ Pratt died, in 1784, her thirds were also settled on Ephraim.
I can find no documentation for her religious affiliations; no burial records for Phebe (but most of their descendants are in Laurel Hill); no marriage record for her and Ephraim; no Revolutionary War pension or bounty claims filed – in short, a classic brick wall.
I am looking at a Phebe Pratt, b. 8 October, 1728 in Malden, Middlesex co., Massachusetts; dau. of David (abt. 1705 – 1743) and Phebe _____ Pratt. Wife Phebe d. 20 Jan 1728/9 in Malden. David married a second time,to Mercy Upham (d. of James and Dorothy Wigglesworth Upham) on 18 April 1734, they had children: (1) Esther, b. 18 July 1737, m. Lt. Samuel Burritt; and (2) Mercy, b. 18 July 1739, m. Nathaniel Ingalls of Lynn, (if not others).
Can anyone tell me if Phebe, d. of David and Phebe Pratt of Malden, married; or is there any additional information about her, which might eliminate her as a possible wife to Ephraim Pratt of Reading?